themysterybloggers

Howdy! I'm the Cow Girl Sleuther, I ride around on my trusty steed and on buses too, thinking about mysteries and my mystery heroes.
And I'm Missy Marple - I love a good old fashioned mystery accompanied by a nice cup of tea. Get yr freak on and solve some mysteries with us!

Monday, April 09, 2007

MARPLE JUST BUTT OUT!

Don't you just loathe the new "Marple"? I have been restrained when discussing the new Marple in the past. However after watching several episodes of the new Marple (note the missing Miss, which upsets me greatly), I have come to be increasingly annoyed with her meddling.

Never before have I felt that Miss Marple was a meddler. Take "By the Pricking of My Thumbs". In the book this is a Tommy and Tuppence case. Tuppence is strong enough and bold enough to go hunting around the countryside for the missing Mrs Lancaster and the spooky house depicted in the painting left to her by her husband's aunt. It is creepy read, with Tuppence finding the house and creeping around it, discovering the china doll in the chimney piece, and eventually discovering Mrs Lancaster hiding in an annex of the house. There are rumours of child abuse and kidnapping, and it's all very scary.

So how come ITV turned this sinister tale into a cartooned Marple episode? Oh it angers me, that Tuppence played by Greta Scattchi is portrayed as a drunk, unappreciated by her husband Tommy, and to top it all Tuppence has to deal with an increasingly doddery Miss Marple. Miss Marple is the shrewdest detective I know. Ok sometimes she played the fool, but she was never doddery. And just to end, the evil child catching Mrs Lancaster, is dressed up as red riding hood, with not even a hit of menace.

Listen ITV stop mixing up Agatha Christie's detectives. Honestly one of these days Miss Marple will find herself interfering in one of Poirot's cases and then ITV will have a guilty conscience. Just imagine it, it wouldn't be pleasant!

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Poirot vs Cadfael

Have you been tuning into BBC 7 mystery lovers? If you have you'll see we have been doubly rewarded with some Poirot and Cadfael. As ever i am utterly spoilt to the point of not knowing which to listen to first, and whether i should listen to the episodes in one go or...oh it's sometimes too much!

First we had Three Act Tragedy - remember Tony Curtis's turn in the Hollywood version (best forgotten)

Then Taken at the Flood, which i didn't get to the end of because i was too busy listening to the Cadfael mystery The Virgin in the Ice - see what i mean there are only so many hours in a day!

Now after finishing off listening to Evil Under The Sun yes that's the fake tan mystery, (Missy Marple certainly been involved in a few of those!) I learn that's it for Poirot for another few months. I say bring us Agatha Christie FM!

Well i guess it leaves me to concentrate on listening to the latest Cadfael mystery Monk's Hood - Missy Marple gained much comfort from this while in wintry Warsaw many moons ago! This mystery delves into the makings of the English Legal System, founded by the Welsh no less. Missy Marple is this blog's Welsh expert, so i'll leave the rest to her.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Another Columbo muddle this time not mine!

I once knew a girl once had a boyfriend who was quite obnoxious (The Cowgirl Sleuther pulls no punches) . Anyway they got into an argument about the term simulacrum (young love heh?). My mate used the example of the word “Rosebud” in “Citizen Kane” as a simulacrum, Unfortunately the argument about whether or not Rosebud was a simulacrum became quite heated. The boyfriend’s memories of Citizen Kane didn’t seem to add up or compare to my friend’s memories of the epic film. Step in to the fray, the Cowgirl Sleuther, ready to break up the fight. I asked the man what his memories of Citizen Kane were. For all his arrogance and supposed superior film knowledge, the poor man had confused scenes from a Columbo mystery with this grand old man of cinema!Yes folks the boyfriend had been thinking of “How to Dial a Murder”, where a man kills his business partner by teaching his pet Dobermans to kill on s single word command, this word being ROSEBUD!

Are you a Columbo fan? Being a fan though doesn’t always mean crisp strong memories of the man in the mac.

I’m a fan, but while doing some research on the New York detective, I realised that my knowledge and memory of Columbo is quite confused.

Take for instance the episode entitled “Try and Catch Me”. My memory is of an old lady being locked in her own safe by her errant nephew, who is also an identical twin. The keys to the safe are buried in sand inside a horrible freestanding ash tray (in the shape of a Doric column), nasty.

The old lady shuts her nephew-in-law up in the safe to avenge the death of her beloved niece. And he isn’t a twin; I’ve confused that with the twins played by Martin Landau in “Double Shock”, who, to digress, kill their uncle.

Anyway what’s the point of this babble I’m spouting? Well there is no real point. But it show’s you how strange one’s memories of your favourite shows can become tangled. If one is going to be a good detective, your memory of events and what people have told you must be sharp! Poirot or Columbo for that matter would never be so foolish.

Being able to convey your memories is important too. For instance after I told my mate Gazza about the Columbo episode featuring the safe, he said, “That’s the Columbo episode that pops into my mind when I think of Columbo”. He was then able to articulate his memories to me he just needed a push. He went onto tell me all these details about the plot concerning a light bulb, a scratched arrow on the wall and a rolled up piece of paper. All I could remember was the door shutting and the keys being buried and even then I got that all mixed up too.What’s your favourite Columbo memory and is it correct?